Modern Linux CLI Replacements (ripgrep, fzf, eza, bat, zoxide) Master Cheat Sheet

# Ubuntu / Debian (24.04 LTS+)
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ripgrep fzf bat zoxide
# Note: On Ubuntu, bat is installed as 'batcat'; create an alias: alias bat="batcat"
# Install eza via official gpg keyring or cargo:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eza-community/eza/main/deb.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/gierens.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/gierens.gpg] http://deb.gierens.de stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gierens.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y eza

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S ripgrep fzf eza bat zoxide

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install ripgrep fzf eza bat zoxide

Install the complete modern developer suite with your native package manager.

# Search for pattern with smart-casing across TypeScript and Vue files
rg "useToolHistory" -t ts -t vue

# Search including hidden files (.env, .config) but still respecting .gitignore
rg "API_SECRET_KEY" --hidden

# Find pattern and print 2 lines of surrounding context (Before and After)
rg -C 2 "function executeCalculation" src/

# Multiline regex search matching function signature spanning several lines
rg -U "export async function[\s\S]*?\{" src/

# Preview replacing old function calls without touching files
rg "oldLogger\((.*?)\)" -r "newLogger(\$1)"

High-velocity code search commands showcasing type filtering, context printing, and replacement previews.

# 1. Interactive Git branch switcher
git checkout $(git branch --all | fzf | tr -d '[:space:]' | sed 's#remotes/origin/##')

# 2. Interactive process killer with multi-select (Tab to mark multiple, Enter to kill)
ps aux | fzf --multi --header="Select processes to kill (Tab to select multiple)" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -r kill -9

# 3. Interactive ripgrep with live file preview using bat
rg --line-number --no-heading --color=always "" | \
  fzf --ansi \
      --delimiter : \
      --preview 'bat --style=numbers --color=always --highlight-line {2} {1}' \
      --preview-window 'up,60%,border-bottom,+{2}+3/3'

Interactive workflows converting static terminal commands into real-time interactive search pickers.

# Add the following aliases to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:
# eza: Modern directory listing with icons and Git integration
alias ls="eza --icons --group-directories-first"
alias ll="eza -la --icons --git --group-directories-first --time-style=long-iso"
alias lt="eza --tree --level=3 --icons --group-directories-first"

# bat: Syntax highlighted pager and diff viewer
alias cat="bat --paging=never --style=plain"
alias b="bat"

# Use bat as the default colorized manual page viewer
export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"

Drop-in shell aliases upgrading ls and cat without altering your muscle memory.

# Initialize zoxide in ~/.bashrc:
eval "$(zoxide init bash)"

# Initialize zoxide in ~/.zshrc:
eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"

# Examples of rapid navigation:
# Jump from /var/log into ~/projects/web-app/src:
z web src

# Interactive navigation when multiple folders share similar names:
zi project

Initializes shell hooks that monitor directory traversal and enables fuzzy interactive jumping.